White Croats
The White Croats, also known simply as Croats, were a group of Early Slavic tribes that lived between East Slavic and West Slavic tribes in the historical region of Galicia north of the Carpathian Mountains, and in Northeastern Bohemia.
Debates continue over the origin of the Croats and related topics. Their ethnonym is usually considered to be of Iranian origin, and historians regard them one of the oldest Slavic tribes or tribal alliances that formed prior to the 6th century CE. They were an East Slavic tribe, but bordered both East Slavic groups in Western Ukraine; and West Slavic tribes in southeastern Poland, controlling an important trade route from East to Central Europe. Archaeologically the Croats were mostly related to the Korchak and Luka-Raikovetska cultures identified with the Sclaveni. Their area is characterized by use of stone defenses, tiled tombs, stone ovens, and many large, fortified settlements and cult buildings. They practiced Slavic paganism. Foreign medieval authors documented the Croats in historical sources and legends, and had their own origo gentis.
In the late-6th and early-7th centuries, some of the Croats migrated from their homeland, White or Great Croatia in the Carpathians, to the Roman province of Dalmatia, becoming ancestors of the modern South Slavic Croats. The Pannonian Avars plundered the Roman provinces, before being conquered by the White Croats, where they then settled and soon started accepting Christianity during the time of Porga, the first known archon of the Duchy of Croatia. Other Croats who stayed in their Carpathian homeland continued to practise paganism and formed a tribal proto-state with the polis-like gords of Plisnesk, Stilsko, Revno, Halych, Terebovlia in Western Ukraine, which lasted until the very end of the 10th century. They were pressured and influenced by more centralized polities: Great Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Duchy of Poland, Kievan Rus' and the Principality of Hungary. After their defeat by Kievan Rus', on their territory were organized East Slavic principalities of Peremyshl, Terebovlia, Zvenyhorod and finally the Principality of Halych.
According to some modern sources, the ethnic name of White Croats was possibly preserved in parts of Western Ukraine and Southern Poland until the 19th and early-20th centuries. Historians see the northern White Croats as having become assimilated into the Ukrainian, Polish, and Czech nationalities, and as having been precursors of the Rusyns.
Etymology
It is generally believed that the Croatian ethnonym – Hrvat, Horvat and Harvat – etymologically is not of Slavic origin, but a borrowing from Iranian languages. According to the most plausible theory by Max Vasmer, it derives from *haurvatā-, more correctly Proto-Ossetian / Alanian *xurvæt- or *xurvāt-, in the meaning of "one who guards".It is considered that the ethnonym is first attested in anthroponyms Horoúathos, Horoáthos, and Horóathos on the two Tanais Tablets, found in the Greek colony of Tanais at the shores of Sea of Azov in the late 2nd and early 3rd century AD, at the time when the colony was surrounded by Iranian speaking Sarmatians. However, acceptance of any non-Slavic etymology is problematic because it implies an ethnogenesis relationship with the specific ethnic group. There is no mention of an Iranian tribe named as Horoat in the historical sources, but it was not uncommon for Slavic tribes to get their tribal names from anthroponyms of their forefathers and chiefs of the tribe, like in the case of Czechs, Dulebes, Radimichs, and Vyatichi.
Any mention of the Croats before the 9th century is uncertain, and there were several loose attempts at tracing; Struhates, Auhates, and Krobyzoi by Herodotus, Horites by Orosius in 418 AD, and the Harus at the Sea of Azov, near the mythical Amazons, mentioned by Zacharias Rhetor in 550 AD. The Hros some relate to the ethnonym of the Rus' people. The distribution of the Croatian ethnonym in the form of toponyms in later centuries is considered to be hardly accidental because it is related with Slavic migrations to Central and South Europe.
The epithet "white" for the Croats and their homeland is usually related to the use of colors for cardinal directions among Eurasian people. That is, it meant "Western Croats", or "Northern Croats", in comparison to Eastern Carpathian lands where they lived before. The epithet "great" probably was not just an association with size as could signify an "old, ancient" or "former" homeland, for the White Croats and Croats when they were new arrivals in the Roman province of Dalmatia. In semantical comparison, as the color "white" besides the meaning "Western" of something/someone could also mean "younger", the association with "great" is contradictory. The ethnonym with the epithet was also questioned lexically and grammatically by linguists like Petar Skok, Stanisław Rospond, Jerzy Nalepa and Heinrich Kunstmann, who argued that the Byzantines did not differentiate Slavic "bělъ-" from "velъ-", and because of common Greek betacism, the "Belohrobatoi" should be read as "Velohrobatoi". The possible confusion could have happened if the original Slavic form "velo-" was transcribed to Greek alphabet and then erroneously translated, but such a conclusion is not always accepted.
Although the early medieval Croatian tribes in the scholarship are often called as White Croats, there's a scholarly dispute whether it is a correct term as some scholars differentiate the tribes according to separate regions and that the term implies only the medieval Croats who lived in Central Europe.
Origin
Some scholars etymologically, and archaeologically due to burial mounds, drew parallels between Carpathian Croats and Slavs with the Carpi, who previously lived in the territory of Carpathian Mountains, but such theory was never taken seriously. Another more common theorization is related to the first Iranian tribes who lived on the shores of the Sea of Azov, Scythians, who arrived there c. 7th century BCE. Around the 6th century BCE, the Sarmatians began their migration westwards, gradually subordinating the Scythians by the 2nd-century BCE. During this period there was substantial cultural and linguistic contact between the Early Slavs and Iranians, and in this environment were formed the Antes. Antes were Slavic people who lived in that area and to the West between Dniester and Dnieper from the 4th until the 7th century. Some think that the Croats were part of the Antes tribal polity who migrated to Galicia in the 3rd–4th century, under pressure by invading Huns and Goths. Others related them to the early Sclaveni or saw them as a mixture of both Antes and Sclaveni. Some argue that they lived in the Carpathians until the Antes were attacked by the Pannonian Avars in 560, and the polity was finally destroyed in 602 by the same Avars. The early Croats' migration to Dalmatia, with Pannonian Avars in the 6th century or during the reign of Heraclius, some see as a possible continuation of the previous conflict and contacts between the Antes and Avars.In a similar fashion, regardless of Iranian or Slavic etymology of their name, Henryk Łowmiański argued that the tribe was formed by the end of the 3rd and not later than the 5th century in Lesser Poland, during the peak of the Huns and their leader Attila, but such localization is historiographically and archaeologically unproven and could only have been in Prykarpattia. They probably formed around late 4th and first half of the 5th century. It is considered that they probably were one of oldest and largest Slavic tribal formations until 6th century.
Some argue that the large Proto-Slavic tribe or tribal alliance, separated somewhere between 7th and 10th century. The activity of the Avars is argued to have resulted with assumed breaking of the tribal group into Carpathian, Western or White, and Southern. It is considered that the Croatian tribes from Prykarpattia and Zakarpattia in Ukraine were related to the Croatian tribes from Poland-Bohemia. However, the same ethnic name does not necessarily mean all the tribes had the same ancestry, as well the dating and supposed existence, separation and location of different tribal groups is a matter of much debate due to lack of evidence, historical sources and their interpretation.
There is a dispute among Slavic scholars as to whether the Croats were of Irani-Alanic, East Slavic, or West Slavic origin. Whether the early Croats were Slavs who had taken a name of Iranian origin, or whether they were ruled by a Sarmatian elite and were Slavicized Sarmatians, cannot be resolved, but is considered that they arrived as Slavic people when entered the Balkans. The possibility of Irani-Sarmatian elements among, or influences upon, early Croatian ethnogenesis cannot be entirely excluded, but most probably was negligible by the Early Middle Ages. The dispute on affiliation with West and East Slavs is also disputed on linguistic grounds because the Croats are linguistically closer to East Slavs.
History
Middle Ages
in his Primary Chronicle, which information and convoluted viewpoint were often compiled and influenced by use of various sources of different origin, mentions the White Croats, calling them Horvate Belii or Hrovate Belii, the name depending upon which manuscript of his is referred to:Most what is known about the early history of White Croats comes from the work by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII, De Administrando Imperio. In the 30th chapter, "The Story of the Province of Dalmatia" Constantine wrote:
In the previous 13th chapter which described the Hungarian neighbors Franks to the West, Pechenegs to the North, and Moravians to the South, it is also mentioned that "on the other side of the mountains, the Croats are neighboring the Turks", however as are mentioned Pechenegs to the North while in the 10th century the Croats are mentioned as the Southern neighbors of the Hungarians, the account is of uncertain meaning, but most probably referring to Croats living "on the other side" of Carpathian Mountains. It is considered that the described 7th century homeland and migration's starting point is anachronistic based on partly available information about contemporary 10th century White Croats, and the 6-7th century existence and location of White Croats and Croatia to the West of the Eastern Carpathians or Carpathian Mountains was never proved. It is considered that Constantine VII was referring to the 10th century Duchy of Bohemia which controlled parts of Southern Poland and Western Ukraine. From the 30th chapter can be observed that the Croats lived "beyond Bavaria" in the sense East of it, in Bohemia and Lesser Poland, because the original source of information was of Western Roman origin. White Croatia in the 7th century could not border Francia, and Frankish sources do not mention and know anything about the Croats implying they must have lived much further to the East.
They could have been the neighbors of the Franks as early as 846 or 869 when Duchy of Bohemia was under the control of Eastern Francia. Otto I ruled the Moravians only from 950, and the White Croats were also part of the Moravian state, at least from 929. György Györffy argued that the White Croats were allies of the Hungarians, but "neither in 929 nor in 950 could be Bohemia described as being in good relations with Hungary", as part of White Croatia was in the realm of Bohemia, and friendly relations between Bohemia and Magyars were established after 955. White Croats since 906 until 955, or since 955, were in friendly and matrimonial relations with the Árpád dynasty. A similar story to the 30th chapter is mentioned in the work by Thomas the Archdeacon, Historia Salonitana, where he recounts how seven or eight tribes of nobles, who he called Lingones, arrived from Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila's leadership. According to the Archdeacon, they were called Goths, but also Slavs, depending on the names brought by those who came from Polish and Bohemian lands. Some scholars consider Lingones to be a distortion of the name for the Polish tribe of Lendians. The reliability to the claim adds the recorded oral tradition of Michael of Zahumlje from DAI that his family originates from the unbaptized inhabitants of the river Vistula called as Litziki, identified with Widukind's Licicaviki, also referring to the Lendians. According to Tibor Živković, the area of the Vistula where the ancestors of Michael of Zahumlje originate was the place where White Croats would be expected. In the 31st chapter, "Of the Croats and of the Country They Now Dwell in" Constantine wrote:
According to the 31st chapter, the Pechenegs were Eastern neighbors of the White Croats, those living around Upper Dniester in Western Ukraine, in the second half of the 9th century and early 10th century. In that time Franks and Hungarians plundered Moravia, and White or Great Croatia was probably part of the Great Moravia. Some scholars relate Vita Methodii's account about "the mighty prince on the Vistula" who persecuted Christians in his land, but was attacked and defeated by Svatopluk I of Moravia, possibly indicating conquest and integration of White Croatia into Great Moravia. It is notable that in both chapters they are noted to be "unbaptized" pagans, a description only additionally used for the Moravians and White Serbs. Such an information probably came from an Eastern source because particular religious affiliation was of interest to the Khazars as well as to Arabian historians and explorers who carefully recorded them. Francis Dvornik doubted the claim about paganism of Croats because were part of already Christianized realms. Some scholars believe that the "dark sea" is a reference to the Baltic Sea, however, more probable is a reference to the Black Sea because in DAI there's no reference to the Baltic Sea, the chapter has information usually found in 10th century Arabian sources like of Al-Masudi, the Black Sea was of more interest to the Eastern merchants and Byzantine Empire, and its Persian name "Dark Sea" was already well known.
File:A Map of Europe for the Illustration of King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon translation of Orosius. Engraved by J. Bayly.jpg|thumb|A map of Europe based on the information by Alfred the Great's work, showing Honithi around river Warta and Vistula in Poland, per D. Barrington and J. R. Forster & G. Forster.
Alfred the Great in his Geography of Europe relying on Orosius, recorded that, "These Moravians have, to the west of them, the Thuringians, and Bohemians, and part of the Bavarians... to the east of the country Moravia, is country of the Wisle, and to the east of them are the Dacians, who were formerly Goths. To the north-east of the Moravians are the Dalamensan, and to the east of the Dalamensan are the Horithi, and to the north of the Dalamensan are the Surpe, and to the west of them are the Sysele. To the north of the Horithi is Mægtha-land, and north of the Mægtha-land are the Sermende even to the Rhipæan mountains". According to Richard Ekblom, Gerard Labuda, and Łowmiański the issue with positioning in the work is present for Scandinavia while the data is accurate for the continent. Some scholars correct the north-east position of Dalamensan to north-west. Sysele are the Siusler-Susłowie, one of the Sorbian tribes. The location of Croats is usually interpreted to be East of Czechia around river Eastern Neisse or Upper Vistula in Poland, or possibly around Elbe in Czechia. Their location does not necessarily mean their whole territory, it could enter it from the direction of the east, as Alfred evidently did not know well Slavic borders to the East. According Łowmiański, with the fact that the Frankish chronicles do not mention Croats, while Silesian Croats are a historiographical construction without evidence in historical sources, it indicates that the Croats lived around river Vistula in southern Poland exactly south of Mazovia. In southern and southeastern Poland are usually placed tribes of Vistulans and Lendians, which Łowmiański and Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński considered as tribes of Croats after happened a division of the Croatian tribal alliance in the 7th century, but other scholars disagree with the identification of Vistulans and Lendians with the Croats.
Croats seemingly were not recorded by the Bavarian Geographer, however, some scholars assumed that the unknown Sittici and Stadici, located on a route between Busani and Unlizi, were part of the Carpathian Croats tribal association, or that the Croats were part of these unknown tribal designations in Prykarpattia. In the list of Bavarian Geographer, this region would have largest number of cities and people, which does correspond to the population density and number of settlements since medieval times. Others saw Lendizi, Vuislane, Sleenzane, Fraganeo, Lupiglaa, Opolini, and Golensizi as possible tribes of Croats.
More detailed information is given by Arabian historians and explorers. Ahmad ibn Rustah from the beginning of the 10th century recounts that the land of Pechenegs is ten days away from the Slavs and that the city in which lives Swntblk is called ʒ-r-wāb, where every month Slavs do three-day long trade fair. Swntblk is called "king of kings", has riding horses, sturdy armor, eats mare's milk, and is more important than Subanj, who is his deputy. In work by Abu Saʿīd Gardēzī the city is also mentioned as ʒ-rāwat, or Džarvat, and as Hadrat by Sharaf al-Zaman al-Marwazi. In the same way, 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi in his work The Meadows of Gold mentioned Harwātin or Khurwātīn between Moravians, Czechs and Saxons. Abraham ben Jacob in the same century probably has the only Iranian form of the name which is closest to the Vasmer's reconstructed form, hajrawās or hīrwās. The Persian geography book Hudud al-'Alam, which has information from 9th century, in the area of Slavs mentioned their two capital cities, Wabnit, the first city East of Slavs, and Hurdāb, a big city where ruler S.mūt-swyt resides, located below the mountains on river Rūtā, which springs from the mountains and is on the frontier between Pechenegs, Hungarians, and Kievan Rus'. In the chronicles of the time word šahr meant "country, state, city" – thus Hurdāb represented Croatia. It was a common practice to call a whole region and country by the capital or well-known city, as well a city by the tribal name, especially if was on the periphery where the first contacts of merchants and researchers took place. Although it is generally accepted that Swntblk refers to Svatopluk I, it was puzzling that the country in which he lived and ruled over was called by the sources as Croatia. George Vernadsky also considered that the details on the king's custom of life is evidence of Alanic and Eurasian nomadic origin of the ruling caste among those Slavs. Most probable reason for the use of the Croatian name in the East among Arabs is due to trade routes which led to and passed through the lands of Buzhans, Lendians and Vistulans connecting the city of Kraków with the city of Prague, implying they were partly dependent to the rule of Svatopluk I. These facts exclude the possibility of referring to Croats in Bohemia, placing them in Lesser Poland on the territory of Lendians and Vistulans, or more probably the Revno complex on river Prut in Western Ukraine, and generally in Prykarpattia.
File:LEROY-BEAULIEU p1.097 RUSSIA IN THE 9th CENTURY.jpg|thumb|left|Map of 9th century European Russia with location of White Croats in today's Western Ukraine, per H. J. B. A. Leroy-Beaulieu & F. S. Weller.
Nestor described how many East Slavic tribes of "...the Polyanians, the Derevlians, the Severians, the Radimichians, and the Croats lived at peace". In 904–907, "Leaving Igor in Kyiv, Oleg attacked the Greeks. He took with him a multitude of Varangians, Slavs, Chuds, Krivichians, Merians, Polyanians, Severians, Derevlians, Radimichians, Croats, Dulebians, and Tivercians, who are pagans. All these tribes are known as Great Scythia by the Greeks. With this entire force, Oleg sallied forth by horse and by ship, and the number of his vessels was two thousand". The list indicates that the closest tribal neighbours were Dulebes-Volhynians, The fact no Lechitic tribe was part of Oleg's conquest it is more probable that those Croats were located on river Dniester rather than Vistula. After Vladimir the Great conquered several Slavic tribes and cities to the West, in 992 he "attacked the Croats. When he had returned from the Croatian War, the Pechenegs arrived on the opposite side of the Dnieper". Since then those Croats became part of Kievan Rus and are not mentioned anymore in that territory. It seems that Croatian tribes who lived in the area of Bukovina and Galicia got conquered because had too many large tribal capitals with local lords who probably didn't act in a centralized and nationalized manner, were pressured by Bohemian, Polish and Hungarian principalities, while were attacked by Kievan Rus' because inhibited Rus' free access to the Vistula valley trade route, and did not want to submit to Kievan centralism and accept Christianity. It is considered that in 991 was held a Christian mission and foundation of the bishopric seat of Volodymyr, but local political and religious separatism caused his punitive war next year. After the attack on Croats and Polish marches, Rurikids expanded their realm on the Croatian territory which would be known as Principality of Peremyshl, Terebovlia, Zvenyhorod and eventually Principality of Halych. It is considered that Croatian nobility probably survived and retained local influence, becoming the core of the Galician nobility, who continued to control routes, trade with salt and livestock among others, but also with internal nationalization oppose Kyiv.
To the upper accounts by the historians were related the Vladimir the Great's conquest of the Cherven Cities in 981, and Annales Hildesheimenses note that Vladimir threatened to attack the Duke of Poland, Bolesław I the Brave, in 992. Polish chronicler Wincenty Kadłubek in his Chronica Polonorum recounted that Bolesław I the Brave conquered some "Hunnos seu Hungaros, Cravatios et Mardos, gentem validam, suo mancipavit imperio". The occurrence of the Croatian name together with the Hungarians and Pechenegs and not Moravians and Bohemians, and the fact during the period of Bolesław I the Brave the Polish realm expanded to the territory later-known as Western and Eastern Galicia, indicates that the mentioned Croats most probably lived on the territory of Carpathians.
In the Hebrew book Josippon are listed four Slavic ethnic names from Venice to Saxony; Mwr.wh, Krw.tj, Swrbjn, Lwcnj, and also an east–west trade route Lwwmn, Kr. Kr, and Bzjm/Bwjmjn. Since the Croats are placed between Moravians and Serbs it identified the Croatian realm with the Duchy of Bohemia, arguably also on Vistula.
File:Český stát v X. století za Boleslava I. a II.jpg|thumb|Borders of Duchy of Bohemia and Slavník dynasty under Boleslaus I and Boleslaus II of Přemyslid dynasty in the 10th century. Duchy's territory included parts of today's Poland and Ukraine.
According to 10th century First Old Slavonic Legend about Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, after his murder in 929 or 935 which ordered his brother Boleslaus I, their mother Drahomíra fled in exile to Xorvaty. This is the first local account of the Croatian name in Slavic language. While some considered that those Croats lived near Prague, others noted that in the case of noble and royal fugitives tried to find security as distant as possible, indicating these Croats probably were located more to the East around Vistula valley. There were also some attempts to relate with Croats an anonymous neighbor ruler who was unsuccessfully helped by Saxons and Thuringians at war against Boleslaus I, but the evidence is inconclusive. The Prague Charter from 1086 AD but with data from 973 mentions that on the Northeastern frontier of the Prague diocese lived "Psouane, Chrouati et altera Chrowati, Zlasane...". It is very rare that on a small territory lived two tribes of the same name, possibly indicating that the Crouati were probably settled East of Zlicans and West of Moravians having a territory around the Elbe river, while the other Chrowati were present in Silesia or along the Upper Vistula in Poland because the diocese expanded up to Kraków and rivers Bug and Styr. The Eastern part of the diocese territory was part of the Moravian expansion in the 9th and Bohemian expansion in the 10th century. Some scholars located these Czech Croats within the territory of present-day Chrudim, Hradec Králové, Libice and Kłodzko. Vach argued that they had the most developed techniques of building fortifications among the Czech Slavs. Many scholars consider that the Slavník dynasty, who competed with the Přemyslid dynasty for control over Bohemia and eventually succumbed to them, was of White Croat origin. After the massacre of the Slavníks in 995 and unification of Bohemia, the Croats aren't mentioned anymore in that territory. However, Łowmiański considered that the Bohemian location and existence of the Croats is very disputable, and those sources mentioning Croats and Croatia at the Carpathian Mountains never mention them around river Elbe in Bohemia.
Thietmar of Merseburg recorded in 981 toponym Chrvuati vicus, which is present-day Großkorbetha, between Halle and Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The Chruuati and Chruuati near Halle. In charter by Henry II is recorded Chruazzis, by Henry III as Churbate, by Henry IV as Grawat. This settlement today is Korbetha on river Saale, near Weißenfels.
In the 10th–12th centuries Croatian name can be often found in the territory of March and Duchy of Carinthia, as well March and Duchy of Styria. In 954, Otto I in his charter mentions župa Croat – "hobas duas proorietatis nostrae in loco Zuric as in pago Crouuati et in ministerio Hartuuigi", and again in 961 pago Crauuati. The pago Chruuat is also mentioned by Otto II, and pago Croudi by Otto III.